The Scottish Government

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Chapter One: Introduction

Background

1.1 The Draft Scottish Planning Policy ( SPP) 6: Renewable Energy was published on 10 ^th July 2006 by the Scottish Executive Development Department and responses were invited from a wide range of organisations and individuals by 6 ^th October 2006. This deadline was subsequently extended to October 20 ^th 2006. A total of 1020 submissions were received by the deadline for comments (excluding 2 duplicate responses and including 7 from MSP's endorsing the views of their constituents).

1.2 The Draft SPP contained 66 paragraphs which were structured in relation to the broad areas of interest shown below:

• Supporting Renewable Energy
• Sustainable Development
• Modernising Planning
• SPP Principles
• Spatial Policies
• Locational Considerations for Wind Farms
• Biomass
• Other Technologies
• Local Contributions
• Micro-renewables
• Development Planning
• Development Management

1.3 The Draft SPP 6 was intended to put in place a positive framework that would support progress towards the Scottish Ministers targets for renewable energy. The main changes from NPPG 6 proposed in the draft were:

• requiring planning authorities to use the development plan process to identify appropriate areas for onshore wind farms ("broad areas of search") as well as those areas which should be avoided
• more explicit guidance on the issues that should be taken into account when identifying appropriate areas ( i.e. natural heritage and cumulative impacts)
• requiring planning authorities to quantify, in megawatts, their likely renewable energy contributions to national targets, taking account of environmental constraints and likely grid availability
• greater encouragement of small scale renewables, including the possibility of setting a target for micro-renewables in new developments
• more explicit statements in relation to the need to take account of issues such as economic benefits and engaging with local communities

1.4 The policies in the draft SPP 6 are linked to wider issues concerned with energy strategy more generally and comments in relation to these have been summarised in Chapter Seven. The Consultation Draft was also accompanied by a draft SEA Environmental Report and comments in relation to this are summarised in Chapter Eight.

Project Objectives

1.5 The essential aim of the research project is to provide Scottish Ministers with a sound analysis and concise report of the main issues arising from written responses to the consultation. This will enable them to demonstrate how such views have been taken into account in the final version of the SPP.

1.6 Having regard to these project objectives an approach was taken which ensured that the analysis included:

• the characteristics of respondents in terms of their broad stakeholder constituency including response shares
• an overall summary of the issues raised in the responses highlighting key themes for Scottish Ministers to consider
• a brief, but thorough, analysis of all responses, grouped in relation to the key points in the Draft SPP and containing both qualitative and quantitative perspectives (level of response to each issue together with an assessment of positive or negative stance

Research Methods

1.7 In contrast to some SEDD consultation exercises, there was not a set of specific questions to which those consulted were being asked to respond (although two, quite technical questions were in fact specifically highlighted). The focus in this instance was primarily to identify the extent to which the policy approach set out in the SPP was supported and whether there were practical suggestions for improvement. This involved the creation of an analysis structure which made it possible to summarise views, identify common themes and highlight contradictions and anomalies, etc.

1.8 In order to facilitate the analysis, a linked suite of programs within Microsoft Office (in particular, Word and Excel) were used to handle the response data in the most efficient way. A database was constructed in Excel with outputs in Word format as specified in the contract. This enabled statistical tables for each question to be created and also provided text for transfer to the Digest of Responses. As data was entered into the tables they formed the basis of periodic progress reports to the Executive.

1.9 The database was constructed in a hierarchical way (with fields to reflect client requirements as finally determined). Thirteen respondent fields were capable of being grouped into six main categories (see Table 2.1). The responses themselves were organised in a similar hierarchical way although the absence of structured questions made this process rather more subjective and open than with the previous exercises. The structure of the response database is shown in Table 1.1 and is essentially derived from the draft SPP 6 itself.

Table 1.1: Response Fields

1.10 There were four main elements to the analysis. First, general comments on the draft SPP were captured and common themes identified. Second, responses to the specific policy proposals were analysed by stakeholder groups, positive and negative comments were summarised, and practical suggestions for improvements to the guidance recorded. Third, a range of matters not directly raised by the consultation document were, where possible, grouped into related areas of concern and set out in summary fashion. Finally, comments on the SEA Environmental Statement were summarized.

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